Canadian hockey fans looking for national playoff success at the professional level are down to the American Hockey League’s Toronto Marlies as the Calder Cup playoffs are underway.
Throw in the Utica Comets, too, if one wishes to declare the Central New York-based team an honourary Canadian entry. The Comets, the AHL affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks, reached the Calder Cup final last season and face the Albany Devils in their first-round series.
As for the Marlies, they completed a 114-point regular season that tied them for the third-best record in the AHL’s 80-year history. They start with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers as the future of the Maple Leafs tries to win the organization’s first Calder Cup since 1982.
First, for fans unfamiliar with some of the quirks of AHL playoff hockey, several key differences separate its playoff format from the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Best-of-five first-round series
First-round series are best-of-five. Falling behind 2-0 in a playoff series is enough of a challenge in the NHL. Doing so in the AHL puts a team on the brink of elimination before a series has barely had time to develop some snarl.
Since the AHL went to a best-of-five format for first-round series in 2011, two teams have managed to break loose from a 2-0 deficit and win the series. One of those teams was the Marlies, who captured the first two games of their first-round series against the favoured Grand Rapids Griffins last April and then proceeded to lose the final three games of the series.
Choosing to start on the road?
It happens in the AHL.
If a first-round series matches teams 482 kilometres (300 miles) or more apart, its first two games must be in one city followed by the final three hosted by the other team. Higher-seeded teams are given the choice of playing the first two games on the road or hosting the final three games at home. Six higher-seeded teams elected to begin on the road this year.
Creative scheduling
Building availability and travel considerations can make for some rather unique playoff schedules.
Games often pile up quickly, and suddenly a team can find itself in a hole, as the favoured Providence Bruins have learned this week against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. In a span of 27 hours, the Bruins went from a team viewed as a potential Eastern Conference threat to the Marlies to facing elimination after a pair of overtime losses on back-to-back nights.
If the Bruins are to rally and go to five games, the teams would play three times in four nights to complete a series cramming five games into seven nights. With little time for rest and games on back-to-back nights often, nagging injuries can take on an ever bigger role with so little healing time.
On the other hand, three of the AHL’s eight series feature a five-day break between games. After a six-day layoff between the regular season’s end and the first game at Bridgeport, the Marlies and Sound Tigers will have a four-day break. That down time allows for plenty of adjustments, video work and a hot team to lose its momentum.
That Marlies collapse last spring?
It followed a three-day break.
Late additions mean key prospects
Imagine if NHL teams could add a first-line impact player after the start of the playoffs.
That is not a fantasy in the AHL, where big-name prospects are eligible to join teams after their Canadian Hockey League or NCAA seasons conclude.
Carey Price is perhaps the best-known example. He did it in 2007, leading the Hamilton Bulldogs to a championship after joining the team late in its season from the Western Hockey League. Jeff Carter and Mike Richards showed up in time to lead the Philadelphia Phantoms’ 2005 run.
Zach Werenski, the eighth pick in the 2015 NHL Draft by the Columbus Blue Jackets, signed with the Lake Erie Monsters late in the season. A pair of first-round picks, Michael Dal Colle (Bridgeport) and Lawson Crouse (Portland Pirates), and Albany’s Pavel Zacha, the sixth overall pick last year, will make their playoff debuts.
Breaking down the series
The Marlies enter the postseason as a nearly consensus pick to take the Calder Cup, but they will face plenty of obstacles.
If the Marlies move past Bridgeport, they would face the winner of the Albany-Utica series, potentially setting up a clash of Canadian affiliates.
Utica survived the loss of top prospect Hunter Shinkaruk in a trade to the Calgary Flames. Experienced playmaking center T.J. Hensick arrived in a late-season move from the Charlotte Checkers in a bid to spark the 23rd-ranked power play. Forward Brendan Gaunce, a 2012 first-rounder, had 17 goals in 46 games, and defenceman Jordan Subban continued his development. Albany finished the season with 102 points, allowed 2.20 goals per game and boasts a deep goaltending tandem of Scott Wedgewood and Yann Danis.
The Hershey Bears have been a force since their partnership with the Washington Capitals started in 2005. They have three Calder Cups in that span and won the Atlantic Division this season. Hershey features league MVP Chris Bourque (30 goals, 80 points), a deep group of forwards and experienced NHL goaltending in Dan Ellis. They take on the Portland Pirates.
If Providence can rally in its series, they bring a roster with the league’s co-winner for rookie of the year in Frank Vatrano, who piled up 36 goals in 36 games. Seth Griffith finished second in league scoring and first in assists. Alexander Khokhlachev tied for third in scoring, and rookie Austin Czarnik placed seventh.
In the Western Conference, defending Calder Cup champion Ontario stormed through the Pacific Division propelled by the league’s top goaltender, NHL veteran Peter Budaj. Ontario finished with the sixth-best goals-against average (2.03) in AHL history. They face the San Jose Barracuda in the AHL’s answer to the ongoing Kings-San Jose Sharks battle.
The San Diego Gulls and Texas Stars will be a struggle of styles and excellent power plays. The run-and-gun Stars play a lot like their parent in Dallas. San Diego, a big, bruising team, has a 1-0 series lead.
Perhaps the AHL’s most undercover team, Lake Erie received a wealth of reinforcements from the Columbus Blue Jackets, beginning with netminder Joonas Korpisalo. Mix in three first-round picks (Werenski, Kerby Rychel and Sonny Milano) with a deep collection of forwards and that deep blue line, and the Monsters pose a significant threat. They already are out to a 2-0 series lead on the Rockford IceHogs.
Rounding out the field are Grand Rapids and Central Division-winning Milwaukee. The Admirals look a lot like their parent Nashville Predators, using all-rookie team member Juuse Saros in net to anchor a formidable defence corps and a workmanlike group of forwards. Grand Rapids recovered from 2-8-0-1 start, put together winning streaks of 13 and 15 games and finished the season with five straight losses.
Add it all up, and two months of playoff hockey are on tap as the Marlies try to bring the Calder Cup back to Canada for the first time since that brilliant run by Price nearly a decade ago.
